Wind Ambitions Could Keep Egypt’s Lights On

A demonstrator held candle light protests against the recent electricity cuts in the evening in many parts of Egypt on Thursday.

Large parts of Cairo were left in the dark again this week as Egypt wrestles with a series of major power disruptions. The timing couldn’t be worse.

Public anxiety levels are already sky high due to concerns about wheat supplies and food inflation following Russia’s recent ban on exports. It is, after all the world’s biggest importer of the grain.

But with all this happening during the holy month of Ramadan — a period during which Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset — it’s little wonder that people are taking to the streets in protest.

At the heart of Egypt’s power problem is its outdated and neglected electricity infrastructure. Soaring summer temperatures have pressured an already creaky system while high night-time demand for electricity — a period when Muslim’s break their daily fast — has also contributed to the outages.

To be sure, the Egyptian government is taking some steps to deal with the issue. It recently secured a $385 million loan from the European Investment Bank to fund its North Giza Power Plant project outside the capital of Cairo, but this isn’t expected to come online until 2014.

Four years is a long wait for a rapidly growing and fast developing population. It’s an especially long time to sit through long periods of darkness and without the comfort of air conditioning during the feverishly hot summer months.

Egyptian media reports claim the government is examining ways to avoid the repetition of power failures through the introduction of “nontraditional solutions.”

Besides a “traditional” move to say reign in generous power subsidies, especially to heavy industry, Egypt should instead use the latest disruptions as an opportunity to fast track development of alternative energy sources. Wind speeds in the Gulf of Suez consistently average about 9 to 10 meters a second, way ahead of comparable European locations, and making conditions ripe for harnessing wind power.